Army on Sunday said the militants’ group, which carried out the attack on its Uri camp, was looking to hit civilian targets in order to create fear ahead of the third phase polling in the state.

“(Either side of) the road between Baramulla and Uri is densely populated now. The aim must have been to come and strike at civilian targets to cause fear and disrupt the peaceful conditions ahead of the polls,” General Officer
Commanding of Army’s 15 Corps Lt General Subrata Saha told reporters here.

Lt General Saha, however, dismissed assertions that the attacks were due to failure of the counter-infiltration grid
along the Line of Control (LoC). “Had that been the case they could have attacked the civilian targets that they were
looking for,” he added.

Eleven security personnel including eight soldiers were killed in the pre-dawn attack on the Army camp by militants,
who had infiltrated from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, before all the six assailants were shot dead.

“They (militants) came and banged against this position of ours and where in a span of barely 60 odd metres, all the
six terrorists were neutralised,” Lt Gen Saha said, adding “the fact they have been eliminated, the security grid has
succeeded with a heavy price.”

Paying tribute to the soldiers and policemen killed in the operation, Lt Gen Saha said it is their brave fight that
ensured that the attack on civilian targets was avoided and “any harm to innocent civilians, particularly during this
period when elections are on, was avoided”.

Mohra, the scene of the deadly gunbattle on Friday, is located 10 kilometres from the Haji Peer Pass and Kamalkote,
the nearest points on the Line of Control. There are several densely populated villages located between the army camp targeted by the militants and the LoC.

The army commander said there was enough evidence to show that the assailants were supported by the Pakistani
establishment and that the attack and other incidents before it along the Line of Control in Kashmir were coordinated and synchronised.